From the islands of Indonesia, the IP Komodo prowls South East Asia and beyond looking for succulent morsels of intellectual property news with the aim of to raising awareness of South East Asia's IP issues to help people understand this diverse region's IP complexities.

Monday, June 30, 2014

Philippines Customs improvments

IP Komodo has learnt of more Customs seizures at Philippines ports. See
the link below right for Philippines Customs for previous news. In late May Customs Commissioner John
Phillip Sevilla (a former Goldman Sachs trader) spoke to the media and outlined how drastic leadership
leadership and leadership changes (such as firing customs officers complicit in smuggling!) were starting to “uproot corruption by
rebooting customs”. Ports rationalization, better coordination with the Internal Revenue, adoption of best international customs
practices, implementation of the agency’s international commitments, and
updating the outdated Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines were under
way. The problems the agency faces he said included too few Customs offices, only
994 computers with limited Internet access, low salaries and a credibility
problem. However new performance
targets, new hiring, overtime pay, more computers, a paperless office are all in
the pipeline now. These developments are attributed to criticism of the "Bureau of
Corruption" by President Aquino in his State of the Nation Address last July. This really bodes well for IP holders, as Customs act on suspect shipments. File your recordals now!

Subscribe via email

Powered by Rouse

About Komodo Dragons

About Rouse

Rouse is an emerging markets focussed IP firm. Our website is at http://www.rouse.com The blogger behind IP Komodo is Nick Redfearn who has worked in Rouse offices in UK, Indonesia, Dubai, Vietnam China and Philippines. His profile is here.

Terms of Use: if you abuse my copyright, or rely on my site as advice, then you will be eaten. Simple theme. Powered by Blogger.